


The suit

by bunnysworld



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29964189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunnysworld/pseuds/bunnysworld
Summary: Merlin needs to get a suit to attend a wedding
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 91
Kudos: 165
Collections: Camelot Drabble — Prompt #449: Wrong number





	1. Chapter 1

Merlin turned this way and that in the small badly lit cubicle. He hated clothes-shopping and usually ordered his stuff online. This was important, though, so he wanted to look good. It was the fifth suit and tie-combination that he had tried on and no matter what the sales person said, he felt like being stuffed in a costume. The man staring back at him through the mirror wasn’t him.

Sighing, Merlin fiddled his mobile out of the pocket of his jeans that he had thrown carelessly to the ground and snapped a selfie. Percy knew such things, he would know if this was outfit was at least adequate. But…what was Percy’s number? After an unfortunate accident with his old mobile he had just gotten this new one and didn’t have the time to synchronize all the data.

Sticking his tongue out in concentration, he tried to remember Percy’s number. Okay…he got it. Slowly, he typed it in, attached the photo and wrote a little message.

_So unsure. Will this do?_

It took a moment before his device buzzed.

_I’m sure you got the wrong number, but the suit doesn’t fit. Too tight in the shoulders, too wide around you middle._

Merlin stared at his phone and paled and blushed at the same time. He had sent a total stranger a photo of himself and asked for advice! This was awkward.

 _Oh, wrong number, sorry for bothering you._ He hoped that this would appease the person after he had stolen some time out of their day.

_Don’t worry. What’s the occasion?_

Blinking, Merlin still stared at the screen. Occasion? Ah! _Friends’ wedding_

__Definitely not this one. It makes you look like a schoolboy wearing the suit of his older brother_ _

Oy! It wasn’t THAT bad, was it? Merlin still turned in front of the mirror but then took off the jacket. Well, if the stranger wanted a fashion show, he would get his opinion on the other jackets he still had in the cubicle. _How about this one?_

_You’re taking me on, right? It fits you around the middle, but your shoulders look like you’ve been working out too much and the suit will burst any minute_

Wow, this person was blunt, but the longer Merlin looked, the more uncomfortable he felt in this jacket, so he took it off again. 

_That was is? You only have these two short-listed?_

No, he had two more, so he put on another jacket and send a pic. 

_Ew, what colour is this? It doesn’t suit you at all. You need something to make your eyes pop_

To make his eyes pop. Ah, whatever that meant when it came to buying a suit. But the person was right, this was a colour for an elderly gentleman who lived in his mansion with a basset hound and some horses. 

_How about this one?_ Merlin sent a pic of the last one he had in there, not very convinced that this would meet the person’s approval. 

_If you aim for a career as a 1970s mafia boss, get it. If you want to look good at the wedding, don’t. BTW, are you the groom?_

Merlin giggled at the first part. It was what had shot through his mind when the salesman had handed him the suit. But then…him? The groom? _Err…no! I’m not. What am I going to do now?_

_To become a groom? Find the person you want to spend your life with and…oh, you meant about the suit situation._

Now Merlin laughed. 

“Is everything alright, Sir?” 

Oh, Merlin had completely forgotten about the young man who had pushed all those horrible suits on him. 

“Yes, thanks, I’ll need a minute.” 

_Yes, the ‘suit situation’_

_Where are you?_

Taking a deep breath, Merlin stared at this question. Should he reveal his whereabouts to a total stranger? _Whitby’s_

_Oh gosh, they’re horrible. Don’t tell me that little leech with too much eyeliner attached himself to you!_

Merlin snorted. That wasn’t a very nice description of the salesman, albeit a very fitting one. _Yes. Help?_

As he slowly took the suit and shirt off to get back into his own clothes, Merlin hoped that his conversation partner typed in a list of places he could go look for a decent suit. They seemed to understand a bit about them and maybe he could use them to get a suit to look good in for one day that didn’t cost him an arm and a leg. 

_I know a few other places. Get out of there as soon as you can, wait at their cafeteria, I’m on my way!_

Merlin stared at his screen. What was going on? He had accidentally typed in the wrong number and by chance found someone who wasn’t annoyed by that and who actually knew a thing or two about suits, which was surprising in itself. But now the person was on their way here and…wanted to go shopping with him? 

What the hell was happening here? 


	2. Chapter 2

When he finally had shaken off the salesman, Merlin fled the men’s department and made his way to the escalators. Should he really go to the cafeteria and wait for a total stranger or just leave and try his luck in the next store? It would be awfully impolite to just leave, wouldn’t it? So Merlin found himself on the escalator up to where he knew the cafeteria was. He got himself a tea and found a little table by the window. 

Looking down at the people crowding the busy street in this shopping district, he wondered what he had gotten himself into. Would he just go shopping with someone he hadn’t even met? What if this person came in and took one look at him and left in a hurry? Then again, they had seen his photo, so they pretty much knew what he looked like. He didn’t even know if it was a male or a female who had given him advice. So he sipped his tea and waited. Maybe nobody would show up anyways.

“Err..hi. Is this seat taken?”

Merlin had been so deep in thought that he hadn’t even noticed that someone had stepped up to the table and he startled. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, I…”

Taking a quick look around, Merlin noticed that most of the other tables were empty, so…He carefully looked up and couldn’t help but stare. This man was gorgeous. All blond and blue-eyed, with a friendly smile on his face. 

“I…I’m sorry, of course.” He gestured towards the chair opposite his. 

The man put his little tray with a mug of coffee down and grinned at him. “So you escaped from the hell that is Whitby’s men’s department.”

“Err…yeah…I…” Merlin blinked again, at a loss of words. For a moment, he had feared that someone twice his age would show up, but this bloke didn’t seem to be that much older than him. And he was in jeans and a t-shirt, which didn’t necessarily shout ‘I know all about suits’. 

“Let’s see. When we finish out drinks, we’ll go to Lazenberd’s and if we don’t find anything there, we’ll try Margron’s. This isn’t going to be easy.” The man looked him up and down. Well, at least what he saw from where he was sitting at the table. 

Merlin paled. “I’m not sure I can afford anything they sell there.”

“So bespoke is out of the question, hm?” The blond made a face. 

“Pretty much, yes.” Bespoke. Merlin of course knew that there were tailors who made suits and shirts just for you and they fit perfectly. But they also probably cost more than he made in a month. 

“Then we have to find something that a good tailor can fit to you.”

Merlin blinked. “How comes that you know so much about suits?”

The blond grinned and shrugged. “I had to wear them from an early age on and I still do at work, so…” He shrugged again. 

“So you’re working for one of the big companies? Business dinners and such?” Merlin sipped his tea, hoping he wasn’t too nosy. 

“Yes, something like that. So…” The man looked down at his own clothes. “I hope you forgive me the more than casual outfit. It’s my day off.”

“That you want to spend helping a total stranger finding a suit for a wedding…”

“I saw the desperate look on your face in that first photo you sent and why not? It’s something I’m quite good at.”

“I’m…that never happened to me before. I thought I was sending this to a friend, but I have a new phone and I must have mistyped the number. So sorry!”

“Don’t be. It’s your lucky day, when you are done with your tea, we can start our hunt to find something that makes you shine.”

Shine? Merlin wasn’t sure about that. He was never the one to shine. Always in baggy clothes and with hair that always looked as if he needed a haircut. He finished his tea, though, and got up. 

“Ready?”

Merlin nodded.


	3. Chapter 3

The blond had dragged him down the street and took a turn into a small alley that Merlin had never noticed before. When he looked at the shop windows, he pretty quickly knew why. This was the shopping area for the costumers with a lot more in their bank accounts than him. That the blond knew these stores was unsettling. 

“Err…”

“Just a shortcut to one of the other stores I wanted to bring to your attention.”

Merlin relaxed a bit. “So, you’re…” He didn’t come up with anything to say. 

The man stopped and Merlin nearly bumped into him. “How impolite of me! I’m Arthur.” He held out his hand. 

Merlin automatically took it and he liked the warm, firm grip around his hand. “I’m Merlin.” True, they hadn’t even exchanged their names in the twenty minutes it took to finish their beverages. 

“Nice meeting you, Merlin. Let’s get you a decent suit. Tell me a bit about the wedding. Is it very formal? Or more casual?”

“Well, it’s unfortunately not a ‘come as you are’ or a deliberately dress down affair. It’s my best friends, so I can’t show up in jeans and runners.”

“You sound as if you regretted that.” Arthur laughed. “Do you have any kind of function in this?”

“Function?” Merlin echoed.

“Yes. Are you the best man or the flower girl or anything like that?”

Merlin blinked, but Arthur kept a totally straight face…for about five seconds and they both laughed. “I have a feeling, this would be easier if I were the flower girl.”

“I might be the wrong person to ask about flower girl dresses, though.”

Grinning, Merlin made a gesture so they walked on. “You’re saying I should be happy that I’m only looking for a suit?”

“Something like that.”

Somehow Merlin was relieved when they left the alley with the expensive shops, but that wouldn’t mean that Arthur wouldn’t drag him into a store where a simple tie was more than his entire budget. He needed to get this off his chest. “Listen…”

“Hm?”

“As you might have figured out, my budget isn’t endless…”

“Where’s your limit?”

Merlin told him how much he was willing to spend. Or more, how much he could afford to spend.

Arthur let out some breath in a low whistle. “For the suit. And the rest?”

“Including the rest.”

Now was the time to watch Arthur pale. Obviously his entire budget was less than what Arthur usually spent on shoes alone. But he caught himself quickly. 

“Alright, that will be a challenge, but…” The grin returned to his face. “Challenge accepted.”

After a while, he stopped in front of a store that Merlin had never even noticed. 

“Here?”

“Yes.” Arthur took that one well worn step up to the shop’s entrance, opened the door and made a grand gesture. “After you.”

Shyly Merlin entered the store. He had felt weird when he went to the men’s department at Whitby’s, but this here was an entirely different number. There were lots of suits in all colours and sizes, one wall was lined with shelves full of neatly stacked shirts and a display on a counter showed ties. An entire huge display of ties. Merlin assumed that the drawers of the entire counter was filled with ties. 

A middle-aged man approached them. “What can I do for you?” The look on his face showed that he wasn’t pleased that two youngsters in jeans and t-shirts had entered the holy halls. 

Arthur didn’t seem to mind at all and put on a business-like smile. “Good afternoon. I hoped that you could show my friend here a few suits. He’s going to attend a wedding. He’s having a bit of an issue finding the right outfit, with his broad shoulders and narrow hips, so I thought you’d be the specialist to outfit him.”

Friend? They had only just met and were…shopping partners? Merlin’s cheeks burned as he listened to Arthur at the same time complimenting the man’s skills and totally ignoring the hostility. 

The man’s face made it clear that he still wasn’t convinced, but he looked Merlin up and down. “How formal do you want to go, Sir?” He used a lot of words that Merlin might have heard before but couldn’t make sense of, so he assumed that they meant types of suits or fabrics or styles. 

Arthur took over again and gave a few instructions of what to try first. 

Merlin stood in the middle of all that, feeling like cattle as they looked him up and down, judging his weird body and couldn’t say a word. 

The salesman pulled a few suits out and showed them to Merlin. They all looked expensive, but Merlin nodded. He would try them all, if only he would find something. After a while, he was led to a huge changing room where all the suits he had just nodded at before were waiting for him. 

“If you need any assistance, I’ll be right outside.”

“Thank you.” Assistance? He could dress himself, he was old enough for that! So he kicked off his worn-out runners and was just about to shove the jeans off his hips when the door opened again. “I said…” He turned to give the shop assistant a glare, but was faced with Arthur. Arthur, who had been staring at his behind!

“Err…here, I brought you some shirts. You can’t try on these suits wearing a t-shirt.” He held out a few shirts on hangers. 

Merlin reached for them, feeling rather stupid standing there with his jeans around his ankles. “Thanks…”

With one last look at his legs, Arthur cleared his throat. “I’ll…” He pointed to the door.

“Yeah…do that….”

When the door closed behind Arthur, Merlin still looked at it. Had Arthur shown interest in him? But no, that couldn’t be. He probably just looked at him like that to get a better idea of what might fit him and what wouldn’t.


	4. Chapter 4

Merlin looked at the suits and already had the feeling that they were so much better than anything Whitby’s had to offer. He felt the fabrics and sighed. They were also most likely a lot more expensive than what he could afford. 

Carefully, not to destroy anything or leave fingerprints somewhere, Merlin put on one of the shirts and then a dark blue suit with a vest. Wasn’t that too formal? Looking at himself in the mirror, Merlin turned this way and then that. The suit didn’t really fit. He had the usual problem of it being too wide around his middle, but at least is had room enough in the shoulders, so he didn’t feel like being caged in. And the trousers weren’t too short, that was a plus as well. 

There was a knock at the door and Merlin frowned. Couldn’t the pesky salesperson leave him alone for a moment?

The door opened a fraction and Arthur poked his head in. “Did you…” When he saw Merlin in the suit, his face lit up. “Wow.” He opened the door completely and came in. 

“What?” Merlin plucked at the jacket. 

“That looks a lot better than anything you sent me photos of.” Arthur stepped closer and straightened the collar of the shirt, then pulled here and tucked there, pinched in quite a bit of fabric in the back of the jacket and then looked at Merlin through the mirror. “See? That’s how a suit should fit you.”

“But it doesn’t…”

“But now we know a bit better what we are looking for.” Arthur brushed some imaginary lint off Merlin’s shoulder. 

“Arthur, I…” Merlin shook his head slightly. 

“You don’t like it?”

“I do, but…I don’t think they carry anything in my price range.”

Arthur blinked as if he had to remember the limited budget again. “You know…if we find something you like here, we at least know what exactly to look for somewhere else. Why don’t you try on…” He let go of the back of the jacket Merlin was wearing and turned to go through the other suits they had in here. “This one!”

“Okay…” Merlin already took off the jacket and then looked at Arthur. Arthur was nice and probably bit too interested in this crazy situation, but he wasn’t going to undress in front of him. He barely knew the bloke!

“Oh…okay…call me when you’re done.”

Merlin tried on suit after suit and with Arthur’s expertise got a bit of a feel for what looked good on him and what made him look like a door-to-door insurance salesman from the 1950s. Arthur’s words, not his. But there hadn’t been anything yet where they both yelled “That’s it!” at the same time. He felt a bit guilty when Arthur made it clear to the shop assistant that they wouldn’t take any of the suits, the man had brought him suit after suit and they had made a bit of a mess of the store. So he mouthed a ‘sorry’ and followed Arthur outside. 

“Does it really have to be one with a vest?” He asked as Arthur shoved him into a taxi. 

“Yes. When it is really warm or it gets a bit later, you can take off the jacket and are still dressed appropriately. And when you notice that nobody else is wear a three piece suit, you can take it off and no harm done. Imagine if you showed up without it and everybody else was wearing one…” Arthur shook his head. 

Merlin knew he would feel out of place in a suit anyways and he never spared much thought on being underdressed anyway, so he would trust Arthur’s expertise. 

He gasped when the taxi stopped in front of a high-end shop. “Arthur, I can’t…”

“We’re still on the quest to find something that we can work with. If they have it, we will know exactly what we need.”

“They won’t even let us in, just look at us.” Merlin pulled his jeans up a bit higher, which had no effect at all as they just slid back into their usual low-hanging position. 

Arthur just grinned and opened the door for him. “After you.”

Had Merlin been shy in the last store, he was outright intimidated in this one. Even the salespeople were dressed better than he had been his entire life! “Arthur, this is…” He whispered but got cut off by a man who could easily be one of their fathers. 

“Mr. Pendragon! Always a pleasure to see you. What can I do for you today?”

Oh, so this was a store Arthur frequented. And…Pendragon…where had he heard the name before? He had no time to dwell on this. 

“Charles! Likewise.” Arthur threw him a sideways look. “Today, we are looking for a suit for my friend.” He went into a lengthy explanation of ‘what he thought might look good’, his eyes holding Merlin’s gaze, before he turned back to the shop assistant. “But of course we will rely on your expertise, I might be totally wrong.” 

Charles smiled courtly and nodded before he turned to Merlin and looked him up and down. This was a part Merlin definitely didn’t like, but obediently, he looked at suits that Charles pulled out and showed to him. He knew a bit better now what he liked, so he nodded at a few and put a veto in for others. It didn’t take long before he found himself in an even bigger changing room than the one in the shop before. 

Immediately, Merlin reached for a blue suit. He knew he would never be able to pay for this, but he had liked it the moment he saw it. When he had it on, he looked at himself in the mirror and for the first time, he smiled at what he saw. The legs of the trousers were a bit too long, but that could be fixed. Shyly, he padded out into the area in front of the changing rooms. “This one?”

Arthur stared at him for a moment. 

“Not good? Okay, then I’ll just…”

“No, very good. This is the best one so far. Charles?”

The shop assistant appeared with yet another suit on his arm. “I thought you might want to try on this one, too.”

“I kind of like the one I’m wearing.”

Charles looked him up and down and nodded. “A very good choice, sir.” He hung up the additional suit he brought and produced a measuring tape from his pocket. “Allow me to…”

Merlin had no idea what would happen now, but his measurements were taken, Charles got a pin cushion seemingly out of nowhere and started putting pins where the jacket needed to be altered before he gestured at Merlin’s image in the mirror again and stepped back. 

Blinking, Merlin looked at his reflection. Was that really him? He was the boy from next door, always in old jeans and a ragged t-shirt. There was a young gentleman looking back at him. 

“That’s the one.” Arthur decided. “How quickly could you alter it?”

That pulled Merlin out of his thoughts. “Arthur…” he whispered urgently. When Charles still looked expectantly at them, he went on “…I couldn’t find a price tag.” Which was most likely because none of the things in this store had price tags. There weren’t even signs above the racks, so this was a good indicator that even the cheapest thing in this shop was way above his limit. 

Was there a small smile on Charles’ face before he could catch himself and told him the price. 

What was going on here? Merlin looked from Arthur to Charles and back. 

“I’m sorry.” He started to take the jacket off. “This is really close to what I can spend for everything, suit, shirt, tie, shoes and so on. If I spend it all on the suit alone, I will have to go in my old runners.” He sighed. It was a really nice suit and he had looked so good in it. From here on, he would compare every other suit he would try on with this one. “I’m sorry,” he repeated. He was proud enough not to feel sorry for himself. He liked his job, even though he didn’t earn riches and there was no shame in not playing in those men’s league when it came to clothes. Especially clothes he would wear once and then probably never again. 

Charles smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry I forgot to mention it. We have a special this month. Every suit you buy comes with two shirts and two ties and we are working with a couple of affiliated shoe stores that will give you a special rate when you mention that you shopped with us, sir.”

Merlin blinked. That Arthur had turned to look intensely at a display with ties was suspicious. That a shop like this offered specials and discounts was rather unlikely. This was an odd day and he couldn’t figure out what was going on. But then he caught his own reflection in the mirror again. He had never looked better in his entire life, so he nodded slowly.


	5. Chapter 5

It took them another two hours before they left the shop. Merlin had tried on shirts and they had to be altered as well and when he was at a point where he would have nodded at everything offered, Arthur picked out two ties for him and he had to agree that they were bringing out the colour of his eyes perfectly. 

The next thing he needed were shoes but he made a face as they left the shop. 

“What?”

Merlin took a deep breath and looked at Arthur. “I am going to have to overdraw my budget for shoes now. I shouldn’t have gotten this expensive suit.”

Arthur threw him a small smile. “With a special sale like this, you could not not get it. You look really good in it.”

“So…maybe I’ll look for shoes at one of the chain stores?” He carefully suggested. 

“It would be a crime to ruin this suit with a pair of 59 Pound shoes.”

Merlin hoped that the look on his face didn’t show that he considered 60 pounds for a pair of shoes expensive. He just sighed. “Can we get a cup of tea or something first?” Considering all the money he had spend and still would spend, buying a refreshment wouldn’t really matter. 

“Thought you’d never ask.” Arthur grinned. “How about that sandwich shop over there?”

Relieved that Arthur hadn’t suggested a place where just entering and saying hello cost you a lot of money, Merlin nodded. “What would you like? I buy.” He missed the little smile on Arthur’s face. 

“Oh, I don’t know, just pick something for me, I’m going to secure us that little table over there.”

When Merlin came back with a little tray that had two mugs with tea and two bottles with cold drinks, he slunk into the chair and let out a breath. 

Arthur snickered. “Shopping is exhausting?”

“It so is. I’d never have thought that attending a wedding is so expensive.”

Laughing, Arthur fished the tea bag out of his mug. “So, who’s going to get married, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Gwen and Lance. Gwen’s one of my oldest friends…I mean…in the sense of best friends, not that she is old.”

“And you’re still not the best man?”

Merlin shrugged. “I can hardly be her best man and I’m not cut out to be a bridesmaid either, so…” He laughed. 

“Well, then she might have to look twice when she sees you in your suit.”

“She might not even recognize me.” Merlin took a sip of his ginger lemon soda. 

“And she might wonder why she’s getting married to this Lance instead of you.” 

Merlin nearly swallowed the wrong way and coughed. “Gwen and me? Nope, wouldn’t work. So no, Lance is in no danger of being stood up. She loves him too much.”

Arthur looked at him. “And you’re regretting that?”

“Not at all.” Merlin smiled when he thought of all the excited late-night calls from Gwen when she just couldn’t shut up about how wonderful Lance was when they first met. He was happy for her. 

“So…” Arthur put some sugar in his tea and stirred it thoroughly. “Why didn’t you send the photo to your girlfriend? Or…you know…take her along when you go shopping?”

“I don’t have a girlfriend.” And he didn’t need one, thank you very much. How had this discussion taken a turn towards his private life?

“Boyfriend?”

Merlin slowly shook his head. No, there was no boyfriend in sight either. 

“So you’re going to this wedding on your own?”

Taking a deep breath, Merlin shrugged. “It’s no fun, but I can’t cancel. It’s Gwen.” She would never forgive him if he didn’t show up. “And now that I have a suit…I mean…I can hardly wear it sitting on my couch watching TV.”

“You would look good, though.”

Merlin chuckled. He knew he wasn’t what people meant when they talked about good-looking. He was tall, yes, but he was slim on the verge of gangly, mis-proportioned as the hunt for the suit once again had been evidence of and he didn’t want to start talking about his ears. He would need to get a haircut before the wedding and he dreaded that. 

“This…” Merlin looked up. “The bloke in the shop…he knew you by name…”

“I’ve bought a suit or two there before.”

Sales people didn’t know you by name if you didn’t spend a significant amount of money with them, so Merlin suspected it had been a few more than one or two suits. Then again, Arthur had said that he wore them frequently, needed to for work, so maybe he had one of those high-end jobs over at Bank. “What do you do when you’re not hunting for suits with a stranger?”

Arthur threw him a surprised look. “We’ve been spending a couple of hours together already and you’re still calling me a stranger?”

“Well…then tell me about you. Otherwise I’ll always refer to you as the suit-stranger.”

Throwing his head back, laughing, Arthur shook his head. “I get up in the morning, go to work, come home late, watch a bit of footie or play a bit of footie…sometimes I go to the movies or the theatre,” he shrugged. “I’m quite boring. What do you do when you’re not panicking while trying to find an outfit for an occasion?”

“Pretty much the same. I get up, go to work, come home, watch a movie or do some sports, meet friends sometimes…boring stuff, too.”

Arthur nodded. “It is easy to see that you work out.”

Merlin huffed. He had to work hard for the few muscles he had. If he didn’t go to the gym regularly, the muscles decided he didn’t need them and vanished so much faster than he had built them. “I try to go to the gym at least once a week, but I much rather do some yoga or go jogging in the park.”

“Yoga…interesting.”

“What?” Merlin asked, self-consciously. He had met a lot of people who laughed at him doing yoga as yoga was considered more of a girly thing to do. If everyone who had ever laughed in his face had even tried it, they would see that it was a lot more exhausting than they assumed. 

Arthur shook his head. “My sister did yoga in her teenage years. She always tried to get me involved and that one time I tried to show her that it was no match for a soccer training. Boy, was I wrong. I was sore for days.”

Merlin chuckled. 

“Could barely walk the next day.” 

He wasn’t sure if Arthur exaggerated, but it was refreshing to meet someone who could relate to him doing yoga. 

“And the worst part: She tried to make me mediate with her. All this breathing in and out only made me dizzy.”

Merlin laughed. “It’s something you need to work on, just like on your muscles. Only few people are able to relax and use the breathing techniques from the very beginning.”

Arthur looked surprised. “So you meditate, too?”

“Sometimes. It relaxes me.”

“But you’re not one of those types who have Buddha statues in all rooms and burn incense at all given times, are you?”

“No, I do not own a Buddha statue and burning incense gives me a headache.”

Arthur seemed to exhale. Then he checked the time on his iPhone. “I reckon, we should start our quest for a pair of shoes or else Manders and Sons will be closed.”

Merlin finished his drink and got up.


End file.
